Silent Hill: Homecoming

[Moon Rabbits]

I'm surprised there isn't a thread about this yet.

Basically I fucking love this game. It's funny how simply adding the ability to dodge and roll added so much depth to the battle mechanics, as well as the combos and finishing moves. The combat is so brutal! I love the sound a metal pipe makes against a monster's head.

Also, the graphics are purrrrrrrrty, especially in HD. I'm not a big fan of the Otherworld transitions though, I think the Otherworld looked a lot cooler in earlier installments. The music and sound are good as always.

I didn't play too far in, but I've found a lot of connections to Silent Hill 2. Sheperd being the main character's last name is obvious. I'm wondering if Adam is actually James? Also, the girl who speaks out of the hole in the door in the hotel I think may have been Mary. It sort of sounded like her, and one of the "memories" you gather for her talks about falling ill. Another talks about a row boat. Coincidence? I think not!

I think my favorite cinematic so far has been the introduction of Siam. The monsters in Homecoming are all pretty gruesome, but Siam is just too awesome.

[Markus. D]

Save your bullets for the Siam and Smog.

Instead of the Bosses like you would in a usual SH game D:!

I STILL can't play this ('cause I'm chicken~) xD! BUT I CAN WATCH A PLAYTHROUGH!

[LunarWeaver]

Gamefly spewed it into the mail today according to my inbox. Hopefully I get it Saturday. The reviews about this one have been very polarizing. I feel I will either hate it with passion or enjoy it a lot. I hope it's enjoy, obviously. So do all my friends -- they can't take listening to me bitch about it for the next 10 years!

I doubt I can dislike anything that has a creepy little boy in it. I mean, evil children are like my whole thing. I'm sure it'll be fine.

And thank God they finally did something with the gameplay.

[erikramza]

I can't help but feel like making the main character a soldier wouldn't take at least a little bit from the psychological horror that is silent hill.

Being a soldier makes it feel more like you have a chance, with a character who is trained in arms, and combat. As opposed to let's say Harry... Who's just Harry. A writer.

I dunno though. I'll still check the game out. They've all been good enough to at the very least merit a rental.

[Dreddz]

I'm waiting for the European release before I get it. I'm going into it with very little hopes so I shouldn't be disappointed.

[Moon Rabbits]

I can't help but feel like making the main character a soldier wouldn't take at least a little bit from the psychological horror that is silent hill.

Being a soldier makes it feel more like you have a chance, with a character who is trained in arms, and combat. As opposed to let's say Harry... Who's just Harry. A writer.

I dunno though. I'll still check the game out. They've all been good enough to at the very least merit a rental.

I agree, it does detract a bit because you are very agile, but it's still got the smothering feel of Silent Hill.

What I wonder is how they're going to pull that off in the next game, because the combat has been improved a bunch except the whole premise of a "combat trained" character could get old fast.

edit: Maybe adding RPG stat development might be a neat idea?

[Markus. D]

xD... I was watching a friend who imports, play it yesterday.

I like how the character isn't silent when you come upon monsters... he'll actually say "wtf!" and stuff like that.

[Tifa's Real Lover(really]

this game came out already!? *RENTS*

[Iceglow]

According to the information I looked up on TRACK at work today for a customer, (TRACK is the HMV product database) the game has been delayed in the uk I got a date of boxing day for the uk...not sure if it's wrong or not but there is definitely some kind of hold up for the uk therefore people I'll ask on behalf of the PS3 owners (I do not own a ps3 and therefore don't care) that it would be nice of you to keep any plot spoilers marked since no one likes a game to be spoiled before they get it.

[Levian]

This comes out right before christmas in Europe, so until then.

[CimminyCricket]

I like watching people play through these games, I don't care enough to play them myself, but I've bought them all, so smurf it. xD!

Edit: I bought it and I'm scared http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifless right now.

[Dreddz]

Europe gets it a the end of this month not on Boxing day. It doesn't really matter for PS3 owners anyway because the console is region free. I'm actually very tempted to just import the game but I'm trying to save my pennies. Just too many games coming out this month and I guess Silent Hill Homecoming isn't one of my top priorities.

[kikimm]

I am so jealous of all you people being able to play it. Oh my god. >=(

I am fighting the temptation to look up every little piece of information I could possibly find on it so hard. Grrrr. *pouts in the corner*

But one thing: please tell me they haven't restricted your inventory again. I want to be able to carry more than 10 things for fuck's sake.

[CimminyCricket]

You have two inventories. One has health items and key items and the other is weapons and your flash light and radio.

[Moon Rabbits]

You have two inventories. One has health items and key items and the other is weapons and your flash light and radio.

I enjoy this system. However, sometimes with melee weapons I forget that you don't press R2 to use them, instead you combo with X and square ... Siam killed me more than once because of this.

[Chewy]

Why does November have to be so far away :(

[Seraphic]

I say that just because he's a trained combat veteran doesn't take away from the experience.
The monsters that we've all come to know like the nurses are nothing like what they were before.
These nurses will tear you to shreds if you aren't fast enough.
So imho, it's scarier BECAUSE he's a trained man and they are still tricky and smart.

[Yew-Yevon]

I personaly don't like the new camra because it takes away what was once a very creepy cinimatic experiance. I lost hope for the game when I found out that US devs were making it because Konami Japan has always put their all into the SH serise. US developers usualy halfass their work.

[LunarWeaver]

I am enjoying it a lot. I think they made a lot of improvements. Although Otherworld is more like a factory with some orange on it now, but whatever.

The beefed up combat is a lot more engaging than it was before. I don't find his capabilities make it less frightening either; those enemies are smurfing hard. The dodge is cool stuff, although it is a bit clunky. The game favors some of the enemies over you a lot.

I like the general design of the levels better. I no longer feel like I'm clicking on all the doors of a building to get it on my map then running around for half-an-hour to "figure what to do". I have a general direction to go in and lot less broken locks to sift through.

I'm enjoying the story for the most part. Overall I think it's a good game so far. Must beat it for final opinion >[


US developers usualy halfass their work.

That's a pretty silly misconception.

[Yew-Yevon]

US developers usualy halfass their work.

That's a pretty silly misconception.

Not realy. US remakes of Japanese films arn't very good. Also I whached a intervew of the US devs making the game. They got the job simply by making a demo vid with some senery and SH music. It sounded lazy to me. Konami isn't even part of the project anymore. SHO was good because it kept the classical camra style and other elements. SHH looks more and more like a RE game with a SH skin.


this is all speculation ofcourse but I think I have valid reasons to worry.

[LunarWeaver]

Well, you said US developers. That indicates games. Crappy American remakes of crappy Japanese horror films doesn't have anything to do with that. But even within film, some of the greatest films in the world have come from America. That's also in horror. Silent Hill even rips off American horror films.

Origins was just more of the same. That's half-assing it if you ask me. If you're on the sixth game of the series and the gameplay and camera are still horrible, then there's something wrong with that.

This game is far from Resident Evil, too.

[Yew-Yevon]

Well its just my opinion but SH3 was the best game in the seires and SH4 looked incredably detailed. SHH dosn't look that far ahead of SH4 technicly (bad spelling). I don't see much of an advance comming from SHH.

[Moon Rabbits]

Well its just my opinion but SH3 was the best game in the seires and SH4 looked incredably detailed. SHH dosn't look that far ahead of SH4 technicly (bad spelling). I don't see much of an advance comming from SHH.

Did you miss the vastly improved gameplay or the next gen sheen it all has? Really now, SSH has brought in more innovation than any of the previous games ever has.


The beefed up combat is a lot more engaging than it was before. I don't find his capabilities make it less frightening either; those enemies are smurfing hard. The dodge is cool stuff, although it is a bit clunky. The game favors some of the enemies over you a lot.

I like the general design of the levels better. I no longer feel like I'm clicking on all the doors of a building to get it on my map then running around for half-an-hour to "figure what to do". I have a general direction to go in and lot less broken locks to sift through.

The level design is miles better than any other SH too. Except maybe 4, I didn't find myself getting lost in The Room or in The Homecoming anywhere near as much as I used to.

I don't think the fact that he is trained in combat takes away from the experience per se, what I'm saying is that in the next game I'm wondering if they'll make the PC a combat veteran too ... I think playing as a marine or a police officer will wear thin eventually (and RE already has that field covered).

And yes, the game favors ALOT of enemies over you. The Needler and the Siam especially seem to get in a lot of cheap ass hits.

edit: Also, the cameo that Travis makes from Silent Hill Origins makes me curious as to where Homecoming fits into the series' overall timeline.

[LunarWeaver]

I was talking about that last night actually. They can't have somebody trained in combat forever, definitely. I'm not sure what they'll do. Personally, I think they could take away the military background and keep the combat. It would just be looked at as gameplay mechanics the player accepts for the sake of interest. Kind of like how Claire in RE is a college student but nobody questions why she can shoot a rocket launcher. After having Alex's background as an explanation, though, that might just not fly. Who knooows~

[Moon Rabbits]

I was talking about that last night actually. They can't have somebody trained in combat forever, definitely. I'm not sure what they'll do. Personally, I think they could take away the military background and keep the combat. It would just be looked at as gameplay mechanics the player accepts for the sake of interest. Kind of like how Claire in RE is a college student but nobody questions why she can shoot a rocket launcher. After having Alex's background as an explanation, though, that might just not fly. Who knooows~

'Zactly. I wouldn't've really second guessed it if they had the same combat minus the explanation. But nowwwwww!~

[Yew-Yevon]

Well its just my opinion but SH3 was the best game in the seires and SH4 looked incredably detailed. SHH dosn't look that far ahead of SH4 technicly (bad spelling). I don't see much of an advance comming from SHH.

Did you miss the vastly improved gameplay or the next gen sheen it all has? Really now, SSH has brought in more innovation than any of the previous games ever has.
I wouldn't call it improved (much less vastly) rather than borowed from the RE4 formula. The over the shoulder camra just dosn't feel right to me at all, not for a game thats meant to give you a sence of lonelyness. And graphicly SHH dosn't go as far as it could have. the transition from SH2-SH4 was realy big where as SH4-SHH dosn't realy show much.

[Moon Rabbits]

Well its just my opinion but SH3 was the best game in the seires and SH4 looked incredably detailed. SHH dosn't look that far ahead of SH4 technicly (bad spelling). I don't see much of an advance comming from SHH.

Did you miss the vastly improved gameplay or the next gen sheen it all has? Really now, SSH has brought in more innovation than any of the previous games ever has.
I wouldn't call it improved (much less vastly) rather than borowed from the RE4 formula. The over the shoulder camra just dosn't feel right to me at all, not for a game thats meant to give you a sence of lonelyness. And graphicly SHH dosn't go as far as it could have. the transition from SH2-SH4 was realy big where as SH4-SHH dosn't realy show much.

I think you don't like it because it's no longer Japanese :tongue:

Also I don't understand how SHH borrowed from RE4. RE4 only had one melee weapon that I can remember, and that was the knife, whereas SHH has a lot of melee weapons that all have their own unique styles and advantages. Furthermore, I wouldn't call it "over the shoulder" camera ... I was actually looking to see if they would steal that from RE4, and to me, it looks more like simple 3rd person style.

The reason the transition from SH2 to SH4 seems so improved is because of the fact that they had a whole generation to work with the hardware and stuff. SH2 has http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifacular graphics in comparison to SH4, so you can only assume that the last SH game on the next generation consoles will have far better graphics than SSH. SHH is one of Double Helix's first games, so graphically I can only expect them to improve.

Although I totally understand how you would think a game with clunky controls and erratic camera angles is so much better than a game that fixes both these problems :rolleyes2

[Yew-Yevon]

I think you don't like it because it's no longer Japanese

I'll admit that is one of the reasons.


Although I totally understand how you would think a game with clunky controls and erratic camera angles is so much better than a game that fixes both these problems

I guess you have to understand that the controls (wich seemed fine to me) were part of what made SH what it is. Changing that entirly changes the game itself. It no longer feels like a silent hill game.

all the previous games had very responsive controls when I played.

[LunarWeaver]

Well, I have beaten it. Good enough game for me to be happy I spent time on it. I liked it better than 4 and Origins, but then I doubt I could like something less than those two. It is not as good as 1-3 if put within their respective times and covered in nostalgia. But they made a lot of good advancements I hope the series continues with.

The story is decent, but probably the second weakest next to Origins. I saw the resolution of the story coming from a mile away. That was a bit disappointing. Most of it is shoved into the very end, too.

It turns out Alex isn't a soldier after all, though. I guess he has combat prowess because he drinks lots of Mountain Dew. That soda gives you XXXtreme powers.

[Yew-Yevon]

YouTube - Silent Hill 5 - game footage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCTeR4tg86c&feature=related)

the footge in this clip dose look borrowed from RE4. (and the devs look realy lazy about it.)

[Markus. D]

Just play it :p

It has inspiration from it, hardly anything like it though, from what I've watched my friend play.

[LunarWeaver]

RE4 is based around waves of enemies that you blast through. Alex can carry 18 pistol bullets total. His shotgun carries 11. The previous Silent Hill games gave you ammunition everywhere, to the point I had 100's of bullets. He can't even carry that much, and what is there is far apart. The melee weapons revolve around the idea of dodging and then striking, or striking before they hit you. If you mess up, some of the enemies will destroy 75% of your life with a string of attacks. It's a good idea to run whenever possible. There are large spans where enemies don't show up at all as you explore and figure out puzzles. The camera is not RE4's over-the-shoulder either. It's a typical 3rd-person adventure camera, only now you can point it when you're running around. The other Silent Hill characters got the same exact camera position a great deal of the time, they just couldn't manipulate it using the right analog stick. The only time it goes over-the-shoulder is when you pull up your gun to aim so that Alex can shoot. You'll hardly see this targeting system since guns are barely used anyway.

This is nothing like RE4 at all. But if it bothers you so much, then just don't play it. Nobody is forcing you to.

Edit: Though there was one cutscene that was totally RE-ish, ugh. But it was small, here and then gone.

[Slothy]

Not realy. US remakes of Japanese films arn't very good. Also I whached a intervew of the US devs making the game. They got the job simply by making a demo vid with some senery and SH music. It sounded lazy to me.

It's called a proof of concept video. Devs do it to lay out the general concept for gameplay, or to display the style they want to go with for games. It's done fairly often in the industry (Valve made proof of concept videos before ever dedicating actual development time to HL2's physics based gameplay. If I'm not mistaken, SW: The Force Unleashed was greenlighted on one guys proof of concept video). It makes sense because no developer is going to spend months working on parts of an actual game that either may not work, or they may never get the greenlight to do in the first place.

And frankly, with the general lack of innovation coming out of Japan and the halfassed Wii and DS titles they're prone to spitting out into the market, I find Japanese developers are almost getting lazier than American companies. Very few of them are willing to try anything new, or spend the amount of time it takes to make a game right these days.

Back on topic; I haven't played the new SH yet so I'm not going to say anything bad about it. Just like you shouldn't if you haven't played it. I've played a lot of games over the years that were better than I thought they'd be and just as many that were worse than I thought they'd be, and unless you play it for yourself you just don't know which is the case.

[Moon Rabbits]

RE4 is based around waves of enemies that you blast through. Alex can carry 18 pistol bullets total. His shotgun carries 11. The previous Silent Hill games gave you ammunition everywhere, to the point I had 100's of bullets. He can't even carry that much, and what is there is far apart. The melee weapons revolve around the idea of dodging and then striking, or striking before they hit you. If you mess up, some of the enemies will destroy 75% of your life with a string of attacks. It's a good idea to run whenever possible. There are large spans where enemies don't show up at all as you explore and figure out puzzles. The camera is not RE4's over-the-shoulder either. It's a typical 3rd-person adventure camera, only now you can point it when you're running around. The other Silent Hill characters got the same exact camera position a great deal of the time, they just couldn't manipulate it using the right analog stick. The only time it goes over-the-shoulder is when you pull up your gun to aim so that Alex can shoot. You'll hardly see this targeting system since guns are barely used anyway.

This is nothing like RE4 at all. But if it bothers you so much, then just don't play it. Nobody is forcing you to.

Edit: Though there was one cutscene that was totally RE-ish, ugh. But it was small, here and then gone.

This!!!!!!~


YouTube - Silent Hill 5 - game footage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCTeR4tg86c&feature=related)

the footge in this clip dose look borrowed from RE4. (and the devs look realy lazy about it.)

That video was:

a) 10 minutes long. What footage are you talking about exactly?
b) Posted a year ago, and probably came out before that. So, y'know, chances are the game has changed a lot since then and now.

[Levian]

Oh my god a monster just cut me in half